London, ON – The Mustangs Cross Country team made program history on Saturday, taking top spot in team standings on both the men's & women's races at the Vigars & Salter Western Invitational.
"It was such an amazing day, both teams have been working really really really hard at cross country camp and we wanted to start our season a little harder than the past and the results showed today," said Mustangs Head Coach Guy Schultz.
The day started with the men's 8km race, which saw the Mustangs top five finishers in 6
th, 9
th, 11
th, 12
th & 18
th and calculated to 56 points to secure the win over UNB by a single point.
The Mustangs top finisher was Ben Fox, who finished in 25:43.5 in 6
th place.
"It was a good one today, it was definitely hot so I made sure to pack in with teammates for the first half of the race and then the second half tried to open it up and pass as many guys as I could," said Fox "I feel like we've got the most motivated team I've ever been a part of this year and I think we all feel it during practice and we're hungry for success this year.
5
th-year veteran Marcel Scheele was awarded the team purple heart for the race for his performance which included being beyond the top 10 in the later stages of the race and made a push to the finish and ended up in 9
th which were key points in the teams win.
"The race started out fairly steady with everyone together in the pack and then around 5k I felt like I fell off the pack a little bit, tried to not feel sorry for myself and knew this was my last home race and wanted to make it count," said Scheele "With a kilometre left to go I just tried to pass as many bodies as I could and I heard I might be the difference maker for the points so I wanted to put my best foot forward for the team,"
Western had a dominant day on the women's side, finishing with all five scoring times in the top 8 individually. The Mustangs finished with a point total of 29 which was 55 points clear of second place Guelph. Westerns top finishers were 3
rd, 5
th, 6
th, 7
th & 8
th.
"We are definitely strong again this year with honestly any of our top 7 runners can be our number 1 runner on any given day which is definitely special," said Schultz "This was an expectation for us today for sure (to finish 1
st) and our girls ran the race today like they were the number one team."
Western's top finisher was Sophie Coutts, who finished in 3
rd at 30:05.9.
"It was pretty special, our team is getting a little older and for a few of the girls this was the last time racing this course so it was really nice to have everyone do so well, I was really impressed with our performance," said Coutts "We have really high goals this year because we will have quite a few graduates from the team after this season and we really want to make this year a big one,"
The next race for the Mustangs will be a trip to South Bend, Indiana on October 4th where they will race the Joe Piane Invitational at Notre Dame.
RACE DETAILS
Mustangs Men's Finishers
Ben Fox – 6
th
Marcel Scheele – 9
th
Rory McGarvey – 11
th
Ethan Loucks – 12
th
Owen Parkes – 18
th
Satveer Gill – 27
th
Justin Sanders – 32
nd
Team Totals
| Place |
School |
| 1 |
Western |
| 2 |
UNB |
| 3 |
Guelph |
| 4 |
McMaster |
| 5 |
Windsor |
| 6 |
Toronto |
| 7 |
Waterloo |
| 8 |
Laurier |
| 9 |
Laurentian |
| 10 |
Brock |
| 11 |
York |
| 12 |
Nipissing |
Mustangs Women's Finishers
Sophie Coutts – 3
rd
Sandra Guga – 5
th
Olivia Roussel – 6
th
Anna Carruthers – 7
th
Erika Jordan – 8
th
Chloe Coutts – 10
th
Pascale Gendron – 17
th
Team Totals
| Place |
School |
| 1 |
Western |
| 2 |
Guelph |
| 3 |
McMaster |
| 4 |
Waterloo |
| 5 |
Toronto |
| 6 |
UNB |
| 7 |
Windsor |
| 8 |
Laurentian |
| 9 |
Laurier |
| 10 |
Brock |
| 11 |
Nipissing |
